Archive for the ‘News’ Category
10-star Challenge
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 16.
The Building Designers Association of Victoria (BDAV) recently set its members a challenge to compete for the best 10-star home design award. Tim Adams takes a look at the competition entries.
Words Tim Adams
The Building Designers Association of Victoria (BDAV) 10-star Challenge was designed to encourage designers to strive for the holy grail of 10 stars. A 10-star home theoretically requires no active heating or cooling to maintain year round comfort. Through involvement in this competition we hoped building professionals would not only acquire the practical experience of designing a 10-star home, but that they would better know what it takes to arrive at cost effective seven, eight and nine star homes.
23 entries were received for the 10-star Challenge – an extremely pleasing response which illustrates the enthusiasm of the BDAV community. Entrant feedback showed that involvement was extremely rewarding. Those involved found their skills “stretched” in the process of designing a house “which is totally passive from a thermal comfort perspective”.
If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.
Pavilion Living
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 15.
This no-frills home in the Sunshine Coast hinterland makes the most of cooling breezes, sitting high over a dam.
Words Francene Ridley
Photography Aperture Architectural Photography
In the country or on the coast, architect Matt Cooper would use the same tenet to guide the design of any new home: orientation, orientation, orientation.
“In our experience, orientation is the most important element to consider in sustainable design – it has the largest impact,” says Matt, of firm Aspect Architecture, based in Brisbane and Kingscliff on the New South Wales north coast. “The plan, 3D form, ceiling heights and the like can all then be designed to exploit and add to the benefits of correct orientation.”
After years of hunting for just the right site, the client came upon a perfect patch outside Eumundi, a township in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. It’s 25ha of rural heaven.
If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.
On A Shoe String
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 14.
Minimal floor plan changes, new north windows and a collection of retro doors revive a tired weatherboard in central Victoria – all on a modest budget.
Words Anna Cumming
Photography Rachel Pilgrim
When community consultant Fran bought her house on the edge of Castlemaine in central Victoria four years ago, it was “dark, dirty and dingy”, but it fit the bill. “I wanted to buy a cheap house that I could renovate in the way I wanted to, not deal with somebody else’s renovations,” she says. Also, a good sense of community was important to her, and she was already friends with the artists next door.
Sawn in half and relocated to the large site by truck around 20 years earlier, the weatherboard house had had little love lavished on it in that time. Fran initially planned a small-scale renovation to improve the natural light access and make the house more energy efficient: “I had previously lived in a house that was off-grid, with a wind turbine, solar power and solar hot water, and it was really important to me that I spend money on those features.”
However, she quickly realised that achieving her aims was going to require more work than she had thought. The house was a warren of small, dark rooms, with few windows to the north, making it cold in winter. Lacking any significant thermal mass, the house needed to be thoroughly insulated to achieve better passive thermal performance. Polyester batts were installed in the roof and almost all internal and external walls, a job that necessitated removing weatherboards and replastering inside. The underfloor was insulated too.
If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.
Compact Floor Plans
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 15.
Architect Marie Wallin takes a look at the spatial ergonomics of house design to ensure every square metre of a compact home is fully utilised.
Words Marie Wallin
At a time when the average Australian new home is 27 squares (250 square metres) in size (the largest in the world since 2009), a compact floor plan has to be the single most significant factor affecting the environmental footprint of a house. Fewer materials and less energy are used to build it, the space to heat and cool is smaller, natural light is easier to bring into a shallower floor plan, the place is easier to afford and maintain, it leaves more space for the garden, and where smart design is used, there will be the right combination of privacy and togetherness for all family members.
There is nothing wrong with a bigger house when many people call it home but even then, clever design can help reduce its size to something manageable. A house that is oversized for the brief it needs to accommodate is wasting its owners’ resources and that of the planet, even where materials with high environmental credentials have been used. So, how do we make our homes more compact? And where do we draw the line with poky?
If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.
Build It Up, Recycle It Down
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 15.
“Deconstruction” – it’s the new word for a growing industry reusing building materials.
Words Jane Canaway
Feeling the warmth of century-old timber under your hands, seeing the thumb print in a hand-made brick as you place it in a wall, or giving new life to a stained glass window: the joy that preloved building materials give is creating a valuable market for recycling what would once have been building rubble.
Builders with a conscience now talk of “deconstruction”, not demolition, and an increasingly sophisticated industry is developing around not only reusing old materials but also creating new ones with a second or third life planned into them. With building waste in some countries making up as much as 80 per cent of landfill by weight and up to 42 per cent by volume, the potential savings are major.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
There is a broadly accepted hierarchy for managing building waste.
If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.
Bushfire Resilient design
From Sanctuary issue 14. More articles like this
Words Andreas Sederof
Andreas Sederof details his experience of the updated Australian Standards for bushfire resilient design in Victoria with a recent rural new build.
Sanctuary magazine issue 14 – Bushfire Resilient Design – green home feature article
Reborn from Fire
From Sanctuary issue 14. More articles like this
Rebuilding after the devastating Victorian 2009 bushfires, Chris Clarke created a smaller, greener home.
Words Sasha Shtargot
Photography Rhiannon Slatter
Sanctuary magazine issue 14 – Reborn from fire – Callignee, VIC green home profile
The Machinery Shed
h4>From Sanctuary issue 11. More articles like this
Sanctuary magazine issue 11 – The Machinery Shed – North Watson, ACT green home profile
Words Rachael Bernstone
Photography Sophie Seck
Excerpt: When Keith and Gillian Helyar decided to build a new house in Canberra, they drew plenty of inspiration from houses they visited during Sustainable House Day. So it seems fitting that they should open their home to the public to share the knowledge they accumulated during the course of designing, building and occupying their environmentally friendly abode. “We weren’t intending to build initially,” Keith Helyar says. “We looked around at Canberra houses, but we couldn’t find what we wanted. Then this block came up, and we thought we could start from scratch here.” “It was attractive because of the Mt Majura Nature Reserve across the road, which can’t be built out, and also because it’s easy to get into the city,” explains Gillian. “Then we visited a number of homes on Sustainable House Day in Canberra and we gained a lot of knowledge. It was really stimulating.” “Sustainable House Day is great because you can look at so many ideas in a short time, and then adapt them for your own home,” Keith adds. “We were conscious of the need for northern exposure, but the concept of building a house in Canberra with no heating or cooling was foreign to us then.”
Speed Dating with Sanctuary
SPEED DATING WITH SANCTUARY @ State of Design Festival 2010
Do you have plans for a new green home? Are you looking to renovate your house to make it more sustainable? Bring in your plans or ideas and talk to Australia’s leading sustainable architects and designers. Ten-minute slots per ‘date’.
Come meet the architects and house designers profiled in Sanctuary magazine!
Learn how to make your home cheaper to run and more comfortable to live in. Lessen your environmental footprint. Transform the place where you live. This interactive event is a unique opportunity to meet some of Australia’s leading green architects and house designers.
Time: 2:00pm-3:30pm, Saturday 17th July 2010
Venue: Royal Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne, Victoria
Cost: Free
What do I bring?: Bring your ideas, photos, and anything else you think will make the sessions informative and fun.
SPEED DATING ON TODAY. COME ALONG, EAVESDROP, AND MEET THE ATA’S SUSTAINABLE LIVING EXPERTS!
Sanctuary magazine is an official media partner of the 2010 State of Design Festival (www.stateofdesign.com.au).
Sanctuary magazine issue 9 – preview
From Sanctuary magazine issue 9. Buy or subscribe.
16-page sample from Sanctuary magazine issue 9, the “small houses” issue.
